women, kept the peasantry in constant alarm, and they in return retaliated in acts of horrid cruelty.

Lord Camden was called home and Cornwallis sent, and measures were more conciliatory; negotiations were entered into with many of the Irish leaders, who were confined in Dublin prison, and a proclamation was made to all, that pardon should be granted if they would turn to their allegiance.

Everything seemed hushed, when news arrived that a French army had landed at Killala in the county of Mayo, they took Killala, marched to Castlebar, where they surprised Lake, unawares, but who had 4000 strong and fourteen pieces of artillery; the French army was about 800, and 1000 of the peasantry, and their artillery one curricle gun! When the surprised British saw that, while they were defending themselves against the musketry in front, small parties were attempting to carry their left, the panic seized the whole British army, and not understanding orders, in confusion they fled helter-skelter, the French getting such horses as they could to follow them.

The Castlebar people now tell you of the "Race of Castlebar," when the affrighted British, John Gilpin like, ran through the town without looking behind them after the French, who came at galloping speed at their heels; nor did they check bridle or spur till they reached Tuam, and from thence they fled to Athlone, a distance of sixty miles. Here in safety they peeped behind the walls of the castle, to catch the approach of the desperate French, who had returned to the town and were enjoying their racy conquest by balls, songs, and dances.

Lord Cornwallis routed them, but not till they had taken Lord Roden a prisoner; but they at last surrendered, were sent to Dublin, and thence to France. The royal troops at Killala, finding little else than defenceless men, and a few women and children, murdered at pleasure, and each boasted of his superior skill in killing "croppies." This was an appellation given to all opposed to government, which took its rise from the French, who wore short hair. These playful soldiers

made sport of shooting women and children wherever they met them. They erected tribunals at option, and hung when and how their pleasure dictated. Lord Cornwallis gave the insurgents at last thirty days to surrender or be slaughtered.

Now another French line appeared on the coast. On board the Hoche was Tone, who had, after having been banished to America, gone to France to solicit aid, and returned with one of their ships, which he commanded, and a dreadful action ensued, but not until the whole masts and rigging were torn in pieces did they yield. Tone was taken, sentenced to be executed, and while the soldiers were erecting his gallows, under his window, he cut his throat with his penknife; he lived a few days, uttering as his last words, "What should I wish to live for?" All confidence was destroyed among the people, so many had proved themselves that few could trust or be trusted. Nationality was about to be extinguished, and the "Union" effected all that was remaining.

The whole time of the insurrection, when regular battles were fought, was but a little over one month; 70,000 on both sides were slain, 50,000 insurgents, and 20,000 of the government; a great part of the former were massacred, not falling in battle.

Ireland certainly ought to be worth something to the crown, for she cost it much to acquire. The money expended upon spies and informers in the course of this rebellion was very great. The standing army in 1798 cost £4,000,000, and the whole has been estimated at £21,000,000. This poor country, instead of paying off this immense debt, is still crying "Give, give!" and England by this appendage has got a ragged, tattered, besmeared, and hungry child hanging to her skirts, whom she will neither relieve nor shake off. "The blackguard Union," which the Irish peasantry call it, has a name to live but is dead." It resembles much in essence a trembling slave, who, dreading the lash of the overseer, when he speaks of his owner, he calls him "dear master," and sometimes, "sweet master."

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Ireland was never subjected, and well she knows it.

She is fastened to England like a tow-boat, which serves to carry the luggage of the great packet, dragged along at the governor's will, taking the smoke which comes from the leader's chimney, but tasting none of its meats that are cooked upon its hearth.

CHAPTER X.

"How can two walk together except they be agreed."

WHEN we find a fellow-creature in any painful or unnatural position, the instinctive enquiry always is, "How came you here?—What is your name?-Where do you live, and have you a father or mother, wife or children?" &c. If we find him ragged and dirty, ignorant and bigoted, and he tells us he belongs to one of the most respectable families on the globe; that his avowed parents are rulers of a vast territory; that they dwell in palaces, and ride in chariots, fare sumptuously every day, &c., the question then is immediately solved in our minds, and we tell him at once, that his statement is false, or he has been a disobedient son, and therefore an

outcast.

If he tell us again, that he is not a natural born child, that he was first kidnapped and then adopted, and that this adoption was but covering the manacles with silk, that the iron might not be so easily seen, or gall so much; that he has not been allowed to share in common the privileges of children; that he has been sent into the field to feed swine, and not allowed at all times to eat sufficient of the husks with which they are fed; and when above all he tells you, that because he does not always sing in his chains; that when he looks on the scanty rags that cover him, and the stinted food that feeds him, because he has the sensibility to feel his real degradation and petition for redress; he is then branded with the name of "rebel," called ungrateful, that he

does not fall on his knees and do homage to the cook who invented some new spice for the sop, which his starving stomach might never have needed had he been allowed the use of his own kitchen garden; we then find the question more abstruse, and, if philanthropists, resolve, if possible, to seek a true solution.

Ireland stands out a mathematical problem, which neither pupil or teacher of Euclid has ever yet been able to solve. Here she is, and there she is, in everybody's dish; and though everybody may strive to skim her out. What then? She is there still; and though she may sink to the bottom, and you make her into mince-meat, every particle of your mince, like the polypus, contains the living germ of the whole animal. You cannot kill

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her, she will not die. Pinch and squeeze her here, starve and freeze her there, she makes her way across a sea or channel, and some "Micky or Paddy," in the shape of a fiftieth cousin, takes her in, and she finds a ditch-side, or some manure-heap on which to vegetate, and you find her shooting up and sprouting out, threatening, like Joseph's "fruitful vine," soon to 66 run over your wall.” She goes to Scotland with her spade, heavy hobs, and dirty bag, to dig in some railway, or work in some harvest. The Scotchman's acquisitiveness starts up; he takes a fresh pinch of snuff, puts out his horns, and declares, no dirty Irishman canna hae" the labour that a 66 gude" Providence has allotted him. Pugnacious Paddy responds, "tisn't ye that'll bate me; and won't I work chaper for the master, and he'll give the job." He succeeds, and if the Scotchman demolish his temporary mud hut, he sleeps in the ditch, and through wind and tempest finishes the job, takes his sovereigns, and returns to his bog, or mountain cabin, and shares with his waiting family the avails of his labour. He goes to some port in America, sits down on the dock, or boldly walks into some street in tatters and filth, he inquires of every passenger till he finds the cellar or garret where Bridget or Maggy lives, who came from the parish of K-in Kilrush, or Skibbereen. If you ask him if he has any money," Not a ha'porth by dad," will generally

be the answer; but it's ye that have the sovereigns, and may be ye'll give me the work in your fine country till I fill the fist.' If haply he be a disciple of Father Mathew, he is soon in possession of a blue coat and brass buttons, and decently clad for church or chapel. He takes apartments, carpets his floor, and sends for his "darlin' Peggy," and her little ones, across the water; and he is found on days of public festivity among his respectable appearing countrymen of like occupation, in the procession, with his green flag and Irish harp, for he loves his country still, and is glad to keep in remembrance these lively insignias of his national festivities.

Another comes to England, and asks for employ that he may get bread; if the market be full, and he will lower the price of the labour, he is told to go back to breaking stones, or into the "union," where provisions are made for all the "poor and lazy;" but not repulsed, he waits, eating little or nothing, and sleeping as no human being should sleep, till a little job is procured. He earns the "lucky sovereign," sews it up in his ragged coat and crosses the channel, probably without once eating, till he reaches the still padlocked door of his cabin, for his wife and children have been abroad to beg in his absence. Thus, he lives and hopes on, from generation to generation, enduring what none other ever did, still appended to a wealthy nation, who know him not, and hitherto has loved him less.

But now for the "Union." The rebellion was put down; now to keep it down was the next undertaking. Martial law found work enough, the flood-gates had been opened, and forced submission without redress of grievances could not be relied upon.

The ascendancy were on the government side, because to her they owed their lands, and rich livings, and were ready at any time to weaken the hands of the oppressed, by merging her into the sea of Britain, where she would float about, without the power of concentration, as when enclosed in her own little waters.

William Pitt now felt that his wished-for object might be gained, and the Union was proposed and re